Updating Public Health Models: Information Environment as Social Determinant of Health
Friday, September 20, 2024
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM CT
Location: Midway 6 (First Floor)
Abstract: Health professionals and policymakers increasingly recognize that medical misinformation causes serious harm. It can cause delayed treatment, wasted resources, harmful medical interactions, public confusion, and barriers to trusting reliable sources. In this presentation we argue that the information environment--i.e., the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information--should be considered a major independent element in the social determinants of health model (SDoH). Existing models focus on elements like socioeconomic status, education, and access to healthcare. While crucial, these elements do not fully capture the influence of the information environment on health outcomes and decisions. We offer the following arguments for formally including information environment into the SDoH model: • Like the other SDoH it is a structural feature that influences health. • Individuals rely on information to make health decisions. Poor information quality (misinformation, misleading sources) can lead to poor health decisions. • Social factors influence information access and interpretation. Factors like social identity and networks, polarization, and distrust of institutions can influence what information individuals encounter and trust. • A growing body of evidence supports the relationship between information environments and health behaviors on issues like vaccination, COVID-19, and cancer. Public health institutions and research programs need to include the information environment in their models of SDoH and develop institutional responses to address misinformation and promote access to reliable information, similar to their efforts with other social determinants. In the final portion of our talk, we suggest some possible public health responses.
Learning Objectives:
After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
Understand the multi-disciplinary theoretical and empirical evidence showing that information environment is a social determinant of health.
Understand why information environment should be considered an independent social determinant of health to be formally included into existing public health models.
Evaluate the implications to public health policy and institutions if information environment is formally included into public health models as a social determinant of health.
